Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Cholesterol Lowering Meds

It is indeed. The standard clinical dose is .5 MG. Two MG will put you in a state where Hannibal Lecter could remove the top of your skull, slice off part of your brain, and serve it to you in a plate, and you'd say thank you.

Whoever instructed you on a dietary alternative to Statins must have traveled here in a time machine from 1965. It's about the opposite of what's known to be correct today.

First of all, it has to be the right diet, which doctors rarely know how to prescribe, and secondly, lowering cholesterol, while sometimes a result of the proper diet, isn't important in preventing the problem (i.e., plaque formation) that statins are meant to prevent.

About 8 years ago (at age 66) I had all the (carotid arteries, legs, abdomen and heart) calcium buildup tests done because my new Doctor recommended it (high LDL level) and because I wanted to start doing some serious running. l also had as some test where they run you on a treadmill until your tongue is hanging out, make you lay on your side and hold your breath while they take pictures of your rapidly beating heart. I mentioned to the beautiful young lady doing the carotid artery scan that my Mother had a 98% blockage in her right carotid artery at age 65 and had surgery to unblock it. She said she saw some blockage my right carotid artery but didn't say what percentage. The heart scan showed some calcium build up and the % blockage was in the medium range for my age. When my Doctor got all the test results he referred me to a young Cardiologist that I still see once a year. He had me take a Nuclear Stress test and another carotid artery calcium scan. From what I understand the Nuclear Stress test is supposed to show the blood flow (or lack of) in your heat muscle. After the test I said to the technician that I knew he wasn't allowed to discuss the test results with patients but I just wanted to know if I was going to be able to walk out of the hospital alive. He just laughed and said "You can do anything you want to". The funny thing (sort of) is that the new carotid artery scans showed that my previously blocked right carotid artery was now perfectly clear and that my left carotid artery now showed some blockage. I'm supposed to get another carotid artery scan next year, I don't have much confidence in the results. I'll never even consider taking Statin drugs again unless I have to have a stint installed. I'll be 75 next month and am the healthiest person I know even with my high overall cholesterol level (250 last physical) and it's been that high or higher for at least the last 30 years.that I know of. I'm also the only man I know over 65 that doesn't have ED. You'd think men with ED wouldn't talk about it but they do. I just keep quiet when they discuss Viagra prices. I don't take any prescription medications because luckily I don't need too (so far). There's a lot of good suggestions on this thread for cardiovascular health other than taking Statin drugs.

Stress Echo...

Were you able to make the target heart rate and for how long?

Thing that bugged me was that I had a stress echo done in 2012 that showed an EF of 65% (was told less than 1% of people have a value that high) and no blockage. Fast forward to April Fool's day 2016 I'm having an emergency quad bypass. LAD was 100% blocked. My weight, diet or activity level didn't change in that period. My overall cholesterol value was 99, LDL & HDL were in the safe range. I was taking gemfibrozil every other day. I've never smoked though I been around plenty of people who did.

I've been perscribed 2mg and worked 12 hour shifts functioning without any adverse effect. Also have been perscribed 10mg of vicodin which have little effect, generally don't bother taking them.

Yeah, it's not supposed to make you tired.

I am allergic to statins. I took a garlic tablet at every meal for several years. It did lower it some. However, I had a heart attack about 5 years ago and had two stints put in. Couldn't take statins, so doc put me on a new experimental medicine. Took an epi-pen type shot every two weeks. Cholestrol went from 258 to 135. Bad cholestrol went to 40. No side effects, on 72,000 people on the experimental drug. Now I take it, but it is $40 a month co-pay for two shots a month. Keeps me clear, so it is worth it. I can eat anything I want. It is called Preluent or Proluent. It is in my refrigerator, has to be refrigerated until use. Give myself a shot in the leg every two weeks. Just press and push a button until it all goes in and it clicks. I eat bacon and eggs every morning, ham, etc. I have lost some weight by cutting carbs. Was 252 lbs, now about 212, not hungry, just cut breads, potatoes, rice, sweets, especially sweets.

I've been on Lipitor and Lisinopryl for a year now. So far no bad side effects that I can tell. I do have memory problems though.

And exercise. Doc put me on statins. A friend whose brother works in pharmacy said statins are death pills. I quit 'em. Diet & exercise took me less than 10 months to go from 220 to 110. My normal body weight is 240. All is good.

Stay away from the statins.

I don't remember what the target rate was but I'm sure I made it. When my cardiologist gave me a regular stress test after the Stress Echo test he kept my heart rate at 165 for a long time while he monitored for any abnormalities. As far as the stress test being a worthwhile test I'm not too sure. One my best friends who is a diabetic had a Stress Echo test (and some other tests) where everything looked normal and then had a heart attack/quadruple bypass two weeks later. He had been taking mega doses of Lipitor for years.

Wow, I sure am fortunate to have your medical expertise instead of relying on those imbeciles at the Mao Clinic. "Thanks" isn't quite the word I'm after but I reckon it'll have to do.

Tom

Get a large bag of walnuts and eat a 1/4 cup or more a day.
They make a good snack and don't taste bad.
Best to exercise some walking will work but one needs to keep moving.

It will take several weeks but the bad will drop without the statins.

Diet will work for some but if eating walnuts everyday you will not feel hungry and eat less.

They work and they are natural.They don't taste bad either.

It's not hard to learn what the scientific state of the art in healthy diet is. You don't need an MD. If you can read, you can find out. Doctors tend to be decades behind the curve on that subject. Recently, even they are coming around to admitting this.

I have had very high cholesterol for many years and have tried everything from diet change and exercise to various statins which caused so much muscle pain I couldn't exercise. I would quit statins for a while and the cholesterol would creep back up. Finally I paid for a heart cauterization to see what exactly was going on and they found a 10=15% blockage. That was at57 years old I think and I am 61 now, My point is a lot of cholesterol issues can be hereditary so almost impossible to fight. I take pravastatin, lisinipril and CoQ10 now and don't have any muscle pain. The last blood test I have showed the following when I had quit taking the pravastatin

Total 258
LDL 166
HDL 78 which is very good.

The total was almost 20 points higher than when I was tested before when I was taking pravastatin every day. So much of it I believe is hereditary and hard to change. I do believe the CoQ10 helped alleviate the muscle pain and am going to get some red yeast rice and fish oil as many have suggested here,

Guys, please do your due diligence before taking doctor's words as gospel. This is an excellent book if you are interested in the subject: https://www.amazon.com/Cholesterol-Clarity-What-Wrong-Numbers/dp/1936608383

"I sure am fortunate to have your medical expertise instead of relying on those imbeciles at the Mao Clinic."

I didn't know Mao had a clinic but if they do and say to eat whole grain rice that is good advice. The Mayo clinic however doesn't show a cholesterol lowering diet on their website where did you get one?

https://www.mayoclinic.org/search/search-results?q=diet%20to%20lower%20cholesterol

Or even a healthy diet.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/search/search-results?q=healthy%20diet%20for%20men

I've been doing this type of diet (keto) since the beginning of October. Since then I've lost 31 pounds, blood pressure is down, tossed that damn losartin in the trash can. I have more energy and just generally feel better. We'll see what the rest of the numbers say when I get some bloodwork done here in a few weeks. My wife is still stuck on the low fat diet thing, but she's not lost even half of what I have. The results speak for themselves.

me too, as well as Plavix and aspirin daily. I have had no problems with any of it.

FWIW; just got my numbers......LDL and tri's sank like a stone since last year; HDL above range. Paleo diet with some cheating on weekends.No meds.